Yeah, a guy like Rungvisai isn't going to be an easy task for anyone, apart from a freak like Pacquiao who eats pressure fighters for breakfast. Rungvisai is just a good, tough, solid fighter.
BTW I can't believe you dudes aren't impressed with Inoue San. The guy is legit. He's like a less polished flyweight version of Mikey Garcia. Just a solid all round fighter, aggressive boxer puncher. His defence looked fine too. He's not Floyd or Gondo, but he hardly took any clean shots. He was also against a guy who basically didn't want to fight, notoriously hard to look good against, but still went to work and made him quit like Lomachenko does. No fucking around, he did a solid job.
How could you say that guy was hard to look good against? It was a heavy bag session. The opponent threw like 10 punches.
Oh don't get it twisted, I do think Inoue looks like the goods. Was just making fun of the HBO hype machine.
Still saw nothing great Saturday. If the guy wanted to make a splash he should have faced a real opponent.
Glad Estrada got the nod. He cut it closer than he should have, but looked like he deserved it. Inoue is superb. He is a monster. He didn't care about defense because he was trying to impress the American viewers with a knock out and realized early on he could take getting hit. Inoue did make the splash. He wasn't brought over here to prove he's the best, he was brought over here to look good in order to sell future fights. He did all of that. As I've long thought Gonzalez was overrated, I got my bitch slap because I was too tired to watch the fight, expected it to go 12 rounds, and quit watching after 2 rounds. Ricardo Lopez absolutely gets (rightfully) criticized for not moving up and fighting the best of his era and weight class area. Gonzalez already has proven he's a superb fighter, but he won't get the criticism of being an avoider like Lopez. Of course, he also won't be able to make any sort of mythical #1 claim anymore, either.
Just watched the fight. Really thought Estrada was going to lose based off the early rounds as he seems to have trouble with speed and movement. He's been one of my favorite fighters ever since I saw him dismantle Brian Villora. I agree the Inoue fight was a complete mismatch and I knew who was going to win when I saw the other guy had only 9 kos. I was glad Gonzo lost. I thought he lost the first fight pretty clearly and had a feeling he'd lose again. IMO Gonzo had been getting away with being a very hittable, wide swinging fighter with crap defense for too long. Before moving up he was like Tito where his overwhelming power was what made him special. The Thai was just much better. Better defense, better countering and better accuracy on his shots. He did a great job of keeping Gonzo off balance with his punches and did a brilliant job of getting inside Gonzo's wide punches for those final knock downs. I hope the Thai doesn't fight Estrada because I'd fear for Juan.
One thing I forgot to say about Inoue is he has a fucking awesome jab, especially for a flyweight. Not the fastest jab in the world, but it's long, stiff, and hard - looks more like a welterweight jab, not some pesky little flicker jab. It's got some meat on it.
Surprised to Hear Some WEREN'T Impressed by Inoue... No One's Writing a Hall of Fame Speech for Dude, or Anything, but Quite Clearly he CAN Fight... REED
Estrada's Now the Mandatory for Rungvisai... We Could See that Bout Next, or an Estrada-Cuadras RE...Regardless, REED Would Be SHOCKED if HBO Didn't Feature the Quartet of Rungvisai, Estrada, Inoue and Cuadras in the VERY Near Future... REED
Has he beaten anyone decent? Maybe he has. But let's face it. Some people are suckers for beatdowns of inferior competition.
He's Actually Taking a LomachenkoESQUE Approach... World Title in his 5th-6th Bout, Defended it 1nce, Moved Up 2 Weights to 115, and has Now Defended 6 Times... Fighting "Inferior" Opposition is Only Half of It...You Still Have to MAKE that Opposition Look "Inferior", and on that Note, Inoue BEAT the Fight Out of Nieves... REED
Yeah, Inoue is legit. Again, can't believe some people aren't impressed. He's been fighting world level comp for years as Reed has pointed out, these aren't local club fighters he's making look awful. He's good enough that he's outclassed or outgunned everyone so far with ease.
I couldn't pick who'd win in that one. On the surface it seems Inoue should be over matched but in reality he could be like when Paquiao first came on the scene. Everyone thought Pac was decent but didn't think his speed and strength would get him past MAB but he was just overwhelming. Inoue might be of a similar make.
I forgot to mention this in my original fight breakdown but did anyone notice all the acne on Cuadras' back? Isn't that a side effect of taking roids? There's also another nice Japanese fighter I saw fight once named Daigo Higa. He's 13-0 with 13 kos and is a feather weight.
Good point on Cuadras's backne. I actually called him a juicing piece of shit when I saw that during the post-fight. While I think Narvaez is probably as difficult to beat as these guys, he doesn't have the fire power, nor the pressure. So, Inoue's blowout of Narvaez might not mean much in trying to figure out how he'd do against Estrada, Cuadras, Sor.